Reporter’s Notebook
AtHoc announced that the Air Force Materiel Command has selected the company’s IWSAlerts solution as its command-wide standard for unified IP-based emergency alerts. Under the $3.4 million contract, AtHoc will deploy IWSAlerts to each of the Air Force’s 10 bases across the country, providing mass notification and personnel accountability capabilities to 125,000 active-duty military and civilian personnel, according to the company.
Spacenet announced that it deployed its Connexstar satellite services in support of emergency networks for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety during and after back-to-back hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Connexstar provided support for the state’s VPN connections and voice-over-IP emergency telephones. The network also connected the state’s Department of Public Safety in Baton Rouge to Highway Patrol headquarters in the affected zones.
The SDR Forum has created a new working group to address test guidelines and requirements for secondary access to unused TV spectrum, also known as “white space.” The group will develop a set of use cases and test requirements for the use of cognitive radio techniques to allow unlicensed secondary access to unused TV bands.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) presented the 2008 Richard DeMello award, named for one of the founding fathers of NPSTC, to Charles Werner, chief of the Charlottesville (Va.), Fire Department. Werner, a 30-year veteran of the fire service, also was honored by his peers in August when he received the Fire Chief Magazine 2008 Career Fire Chief of the Year. He is a three-time recipient of the Virginia Governors Award for Fire Service Excellence and has received the Virginia Fire Chiefs President’s Award, the Virginia Piedmont Technology Council Spotlight Award, the International Association of Fire Chiefs President’s Award, and two Life Saving Awards.
Clearwire and Sprint Nextel announced that they have completed the transaction to combine their next-generation wireless Internet businesses. With the closing, Sprint contributed all of its 2.5 GHz spectrum and its WiMAX-related assets, including its XOHM business, to Clearwire. In addition, Clearwire has received a $3.2 billion cash investment from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks. The transaction with Sprint and the new cash investment were completed on the terms originally announced on May 7, 2008, according to the company.